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Nationwide wants outsiders to use its conference center

Nationwide wants other companies, private parties to use its upgraded conference center

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoAdam Cairns | DISPATCH photosThe 15-acre NorthPointe Hotel and Conference Center is nestled among trees, green space and a pond west of the Polaris Fashion Place mall.

The new entrance off Green Meadows Drive South provides easier access from Rt. 23.

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For years, the Nationwide-owned NorthPointe Hotel and Conference Center has been best known as a major hub of training for the insurer’s employees.

Sure, a small number of other companies have stumbled across the 15-acre complex near Lewis Center and have held meetings there. But, for the most part, NorthPointe hasn’t been on conference planners’ radar screens.

Now, the freshly renovated NorthPointe is being operated under new management, which is pitching the conference center more aggressively — to businesses for conferences and meetings, and to nonprofits, event planners, reunion committees and even brides and grooms.

“It’s never been top of mind,” said Charles Lagarce, president of Columbus Hospitality, which took over management of NorthPointe in June 2011. “Our goal is to make it top of mind.”

Nationwide wants the complex be used more, especially on weekends.

“There is enormous potential for growth,” said Kieran Sherry, vice president of corporate real estate for Nationwide, in an email. “Since the renovations and the decision ... to open the asset to central Ohio, we have seen a significant interest from the general public.”

“There is enough of a market out there where they can not only survive, but prosper with that facility,” said Paul Astleford, CEO of Experience Columbus, the city’s convention and visitor bureau.

He said NorthPointe has proved to be handy when accommodations become scarce in the heart of the city.

“There are a lot of times when we’re in a situation Downtown where we just can’t put anything else here,” he said. “We look for facilities that we know we can trust, that do a good job.”

Astleford said NorthPointe has particular appeal to planners putting together local or regional events.

“It doesn’t really compete with the larger hotel business,” he said.

NorthPointe, located east of Rt. 23 just south of Lewis Center, has served as a training center since 1962 for Nationwide employees, who learn everything from sales to claims handling to leadership development there. It is one of more than 360 sites across the country used by Nationwide employees.

NorthPointe has a 119-room hotel, a conference center with 35 meeting rooms that can accommodate 1,800 people, a 500-seat dining room and a pub. There’s even a house that Nationwide keeps on the property for demonstrations for workers, including a kitchen fire that it staged in October.

The buildings are nestled among trees, green space and a pond adjacent to the conference center’s dining room.

Last year, Nationwide poured money into renovating the rooms and the lobby in the hotel, adding a ballroom to the conference center and upgrading the pub. Among the improvements in the meeting rooms are new, more-comfortable chairs and audio-visual equipment.

Lagarce said the hotel, which Nationwide put up 10 years ago, “had gotten to the point where it needed to be refreshed.” The renovation of the lobby now gives the hotel the feel of a “little inn,” he said.

Nationwide would not disclose how much it spent on the work at NorthPointe.

Columbus Hospitality is no stranger to managing Nationwide properties.

It manages the Crowne Plaza and Lofts Downtown, Hyatt Place Columbus/OSU in Grandview Heights, Buckeye Hall of Fame Grill, the Arena Grand Movie Theatre and the Arena District Athletic Club.

Columbus Hospitality already is having success at making wider use of NorthPointe.

This year, NorthPointe has hosted 25 weddings, and 40 have been scheduled for next year.

Columbus Hospitality is aggressively pitching NorthPointe in advertising in magazines and in talks with travel planners. A new website, www.northpointecenter.com, has been set up to highlight the complex.

When making its pitch to planners, Columbus Hospitality also notes that NorthPointe is near shopping, the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium and Highbanks Metro Park.

The investment in the conference center also extends to staffing, which has grown to about 225 workers from 200 as the company looks to add events.

While business is growing, Lagarce sees an operation that can draw more large companies that need to invest in training, or even visiting sports teams looking for someplace more secluded as they await the big game.

“We really envision an evolution and growth in the coming year,” he said. “It has the capacity, too.”